Brew Pubs and Beer Bars

( Skagway Brewing, Skagway Alaska. My brother drank here & at Alaskan Brewing Company in 2008.  )

I’ve always loved brewpubs and beer bars. Something about the random sampling you might be able to do as the beers rotate from one batch/season to another. If the menu moves along with the beer, all the better! The people we have met on every occasion have been fun and added to the experience. It’s choose-your-own-adventure for adults.

When I travel somewhere (I should say we because is almost always applies), we plan to hit at least one brewpub or beer bar. Beer samplers, fried appetizers and other pub food is an excellent way to settle into a new location, even for a vacation.

Over the last couple of years I have captured many of the stops in my blog, most often with pictures of the beers, the bars or the smiles from the adventurers. A picture is worth a thousand words, and you can spare yourself the thousand words if you don’t care to click on any of the links in the photo journey below. There’s a lot of beer reviews in there though, and you’ll be surprised at some of the flights from the November 2011 San Francisco trip in particular. I valiantly took it for the team and tasted through more than 30 beers in the few days I was there. That’s killing it!

Montreal

Montreal is the king of the brewpub adventures for us. We hope to do a crawl there once a year for a fourth year straight real soon.

Les Trois Brasseurs is a chain pub, but the beers are good and the flatbread pizzas and burgers are offered with lots of different toppings and styles.

Le Cheval Blanc had a mean cask IPA made with Warrior hops.

Benelux was a fun joint to hang at. After work crowd, vault room in the back. Great chips and pannini. Tasty beers, Moon Boot was a a very flavorful Belgian beer.

Brutopia appears to be a dive, and on Crescent Street some places struggle to keep ahead of the foot traffic that causes it. Great dark, high ABV beers.

Our most recent crawl included Dieu du Ciel who make many of my top Montreal beers.

West Coast

Margot and I have enjoyed drinking in Seattle twice, both times at The Pike right in the Public Market. So many beers, great pub food and the staff is always hopping.

In Santa Barbara, CA at Santa Barbara Brewing Company we had parmesan flavored French fries and an orange Wit style beer that inspired a homebrew of our own.

The San Francisco trip I took in November was a commando mission and a blast.  I started at 21st Amendment that serves a Brew Free or Die IPA. How New Hampshire of them…

I hit my first Gordon Biersch on the same trip. The European style beers were well made and full of character.

I set out on a one night binge to hit 3 different bars before switching to wine by visiting Sonoma. First up was Rogue.I know Rogue is from Oregon, but the joint has a killer beer list, including their own. I killed two-4 beer flights at this first stop and then walked to Fisherman's Wharf.

I hit Magnolia next and had the best random person experiences of the whole trip at the open concept bar. I was there for several hours and ended up hanging with the some beer geeks and two different groups of folks either going to or performing in live shows later than night. 

I finished up the night at Toronado drinking IPAs from the West Coast.

New England / East Coast

Milly’s Tavern in Manchester, NH is one of the closest to home. We have also visited Martha’s Exchange, Portsmouth Brewery, and Strange Brew.

Portsmouth Brewery is the best brewpub in the state of NH, but I am betting there will continue to be competition as local interest in craft beer continues to grow.The food is tasty, it is always busy and the beers are rotated often.

Seven Barrel Brewery is right on the NH/VT border and convenient from the highway on trips to say, Montreal. The food and beers are well made and varied.

Sebago Brewing in Maine had just moved to a new location when we stopped in on a one day trip in the summer of 2011.

Margot and scheduled a stop to the Bandwagon Brewpub in Ithaca during a February 2012 trip to the Finger Lakes. We will be back in the region in June of 2012 and heading back at Bandwagon is on the list!

All this writing about vacations and beer is making me I was one vacation drinking beer right now. How about you?

Cheers!

Jason

Gordon Biersch – San Francisco

I continued my day one beer quest at the Harrison Street location of Gordon Biersch. Last week when I was judging for the NERHBC several of the example beers for the Oktoberfest/Marzen categories were from Gordon Biersch. One of my fellow judges suggested they might be one of the few others, Spaten also being another, that I might find domestically. Seeing the name come up in a brewpub search locked in a visit. A visit means a new chapter of learning for me, of trying several beer styles that are held out to represent the style so well that they are used to train BJCP judges.

I sat down in front of a sampler again, a very nice broad survey again, and got to work expanding my palate.

Golden Export

Munich/Helles Lager 5.0% ABV

Light gold color with a slight haze. The aromas of rising bread was what I first noticed. The beer is surprisingly sweet, lightly but sweet, with a subtle hop influence and a clean finish. This is not a style of beer I am that familiar with, but this particular example has me thinking more about it.

Hefeweizen

5.5% ABV

A yellow gold color, unfiltered and cloudy. Pronounced aromas of banana and clove. This is very much a typical Hefeweizen. It is highly carbonated and very crisp. I found a touch of sweetness  in this beer as well. This is drinkable, almost to a fault. I could go way wrong with too much of this!

Czech Pilsner

5.6% ABV

Golden color with hints of orange. Light malt aromas in the nose. The light malts come back in the mouth and are met with a bold, but pleasant hop bitterness. The hop flavor is in good balance with the malt.  Finishes dry and crisp.

I recommended to Margot that she consider this style of beer for her educational lineup in 2012. While it is boldly bitter I still think it would be a worthy beer to learn how to make. With the hop flavor being well balanced it doesn’t come off as a hop bomb which is one style she isn’t the biggest fan of.

Marzen

5.7% ABV

Light amber color. Aromas of toasted bread. The toasted bread translates into flavors as well, paired with hints of dried fruits. This beer is ever so slightly sweet. Immensely drinkable. This is definitely beer I would like to experiment trying to make. When made well I can see how the balance and generally moderate aromatics and flavors can result in a hugely drinkable beer.

Oktoberfest

This was the seasonal beer during my visit. Orange/gold color. I didn’t get a lot of aromatics, some light and mildly sweet malts did come through. The bit from the hop bitterness is noticeable. Another gently sweet beer. I would characterize this as whole grain bread. There were hints of tart dried fruits. I preferred the Marzen over this, but can understand this style a little better now having tasted one of the classic examples.

Conclusion

The Marzen was the favorite for me with the Hefeweizen being one I think that would appeal to a wide audience. All of the beers were tasty and clean, something that will clearly draw in lots of repeat drinkers.

So far I am digging my survey of some of the beers from San Francisco. I came across several styles in cans from 21^st Amendment at the day one Foodbuzz Festival reception. I’ll share my thoughts on the evening’s drinks in an upcoming post.

Cheers!

Jason

21 Amendment Restaurant and Brewery - San Francisco

I’m in San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Festival and you know what that means, I’m going to be checking out the local and regional drink. Having such a specific focus might seem like a bore to some, but not to me! I came to San Fran to meet new people and do what I do best. I might be the Drink Doctor, I can take the pulse of a place by visiting a selection of its watering holes. And that’s just what I’m going to do.

My first stop is at the 21st Amendment Restaurant& Brewery on 2^nd street. Brewpubs almost always offer a beer sampler, and to me this is the best way to get a sense of the place. The windows were open so the cool breeze (it was unusually cool from what I gathered) was coming in right next to the table I snagged.

VIA

Belgian Single – 5.9% ABV

Golden color with a short off-white head. Almost clear. Light malts and some fruit in the nose. Low bitterness Wicked drinkable. Straightforward, but very smooth

Leuven Life

Belgian Pale Ale – 5.3% ABV

Gold/orange color. Hazy and unfiltered. Definite hop influence. Muted aromas but another massively drinkable beer. Much more bitter than the last (4x the IBUs) so it stands out.

I’ve found the smartest thing to do on the beginning of a beverage adventure in a new city is to ask folks at a nearby table. With luck they will live and/or work in the neighborhood and can help direct your next steps. Taking my own advice I chatted up a couple of guys at the next table and the through the course of the conversation I confirmed that two places already on my list, Tornodo and  Magnolia, are not to be missed while in town. Check!

Ancat Dubh

. Dark Belgian-style Saison 6.3% ABV

Medium brown in color with hints of red. Dark malts and a good balance of hops. Hints of funk in the mid-palate. Just enough roasted character to be notable.

Ninkasi Total Domination IPA

Northwest style IPA 6.7% ABV

Orange/gold color. Hazy and unfiltered. Very fruit nose. Light body with considerable hop nuance. A resiny/piney character dominates the finish. Apricot flavor in the mouth.

Rammstein

Strong Bavarian Wheat 7.2% ABV

Golden color. Hazy and unfiltered. Strong banana aroma and flavor. Surprisingly light body. Low hop influence in both flavor and bitterness. A savory element to the finish.

Roasted American

Amber American Ale 5.8% ABV

Reddish brown color. Clear. Warm roasty aroama. Gentle hope flavor, but the hops come back on the finish. Some nuts and well toasted bread in the mouth.

So what do you pair all these different beers with? Well, not any one thing, really. But the fried Monterey Calamari from the appetizer menu caught my attention so I went with it. I won’t profess to any pairing magic, but I will say that the calamari were cooked just right and were served with some fried capers which was new and interesting all to itself!

Fireside Chat

Spiced Dark English Ale 7.9%ABV

Medium brown in color with hints of red. Spiced evident in the nose. Slightly sweet. Palate of spices is very well balanced. Finishes solidly as a English ale with waning spice influence. The spices and the hops feel like they were supposed to go together.

Schooner’s

Oatmeal Stout 4.8% ABV

Guest brew from a local brewery. Dark brown and opaque. Classically constructed. Faint aromas of chocolate and coffee. Light bodied, with good balance of malt and hops.

Two Rivers Cider

6.5% ABV

Another guest brew. Anytime I find local cider on the menu I try it. But most of you already knew that.

Light gold in color. Gentle apple aromas. Crisp, dry and sparkling with tart apple slant I’ve come to expect from this style of cider. Refreshing, although the tartness is lengthy so the service temperature should be on the low side in my opinion.

The Final Analysis

I am going to go with the VIA and the Fireside Chat as my two favorites. The simplicity and drinkability of the VIA was very noticeable. The balance of the all of the components, including the spice, of the Fireside Chat made this beer work for me. I might even come back for one before I head home!

Cheers!

Jason

Montreal Beer Adventure 2011

This year marked the third annual Montreal pub crawl and beer quest for Margot and I. A few years before we started formally doing this we had remarked that Quebecers love their beer and celebrate it in a very local way with small brewpubs in neighborhoods all over the city. The pub crawl we created is pretty simple. I pick several pubs with Metro access and we pop in to sample their beers. Many of the pubs serve beer brewed on site, and others serve a combination of local & regional brews along with foreign imports that are not the typical that we get at home.

This year we visited Bar Barouf on St. Denis and Dieu du Ciel! on Laurier.

Our stop at Bar Barouf was random after not walking quite far enough to find Le Saint Bock, also on St. Denis. The place was almost completely full and quite noisy. This is typical for bars almost any night of the week in Montreal, but a guarantee on a Friday night. The décor is very modern and the long bar has taps along a significant portion of it. The beer selection was a combination of local brews and imports presented in European fashion by style (blanc, rouge, noir, etc.) Margot has determined she is a stout girl and requested something dark and chocolately. The St. Ambroise Noir fit that request nicely. St. Ambroise is a Montreal-based brewery that has been steadily growing since they came on the scene in the first generation of craft breweries in Quebec. The St. Ambroise brewery and brewpub are not far from the city center and will make for a great stop on a future crawl. I opted for the Grimbergen Abbey Ale. Grimbergen is an old Belgian line of beers first brewed by monks who became known for their hospitality and beers.

St. Ambroise Noire
Black in color with a huge Guinness like head.
Lots of dark chocolate flavors with a smooth finish

Grimbergen Abbey Ale
Reddish brown in color with a short head
Sweet and malty with fruit and spice flavors
Not a lot of obvious hop influence

Our next stop was Dieu du Ciel! Dieu du Ciel! represents the new generation of Montreal craft brewers offering a range of styles and beers with unique ingredients. We are familiar with some of their beers from Montreal grocery stores, but not all of their styles make it into the bottle and sampling them fresh from the tap is ideal.

The menu in the photo above greets you when you arrive. You can’t really go wrong starting off like that! The place was jam packed with a small amount of room near the bar to stand and wait for a table to free up. The first two styles we tried were the Grande Noirceur and the Gaelique.

Grande Noirceur (Imperial Stout)
This beer had lots of roasted malt flavor in it and living up to its Imperial name, lots of alcohol. It was smooth and enjoyable but not the kind you could sit around (or not at least I) drinking all night.

Gaelique
After a long car trip, walking back and forth to the grocery store and her first beer, Margot was praying for a second wind at this point. Because of that she only offered “it’s good” for this beer. It is a red (Irish perhaps?) ale with a good deal of earthiness. It enjoyed a few sips, but didn’t pay it much mind.

A table opened up and we grabbed it as soon as we could. We queued up tastings (6 oz each) of 5 additional beers, including the Saison St. Louis, Aphrodisiaque, Clef De Champs, Resurrection and Peche Mortel.

Saison St. Louis
Gold/orange in color and not as "funky" as I would have expected. The bitterness and citrus in the body were refreshing, but I thought it was only ok.

Aphrodisiaque
This was the highlight of the visit to Dieu du Ciel for both of us. A chocolate and vanilla stout. It SO lives up to its name. The flavors are captivating and taste like the real deal. Margot suggested it tasted like real chocolate pudding, and not the fake Jello stuff. This is a beer I hope to have the opportunity to try again. There was just a hint of sweetness to make the flavors pop and shift you to a dessert frame of mind, and a good match for a chocolate dessert as the finishing course of a great meal.

Clef de Champs
I picked this beer solely from the description, a rye beer made with herbs. I picked up the aroma of cannabis while I was giving it a good smell. I am sure there were other herbs in there but that one stuck out. It was interesting and made me think of a beer pairing with salad that included field greens. I wouldn’t consider it an everyday drinker, but was a fun left field selection to throw into the mix.

Resurrection
This was listed as a porter and I was looking for that signature smokiness which I definitely found. It is very dry and black in color. My notes say “it stands up” and my vague recollection is that this beer is no slouch and demands your attention when drinking it. The hour was getting late for us and I had been putting them back for about 4 hours already so what can I say!
Our final beer while at Dieu du Ciel was the Peche Mortel, and one we were familiar with from the 6 pack we took home with us in 2010.

Peche Mortel
Black in color with pungent coffee and chocolate aromas. This is their best stout (an Imperial Coffee Stout with fair trade coffee infused into it) and a beer of uncompromised character. It is far better fresh from the tap than from the bottle, but I’ll take either whenever and wherever I can get it. The depth of the flavors and how smooth they go down is a testament to passion in the process of crafting this beer.

The sign above was just outside the brew room at Dieu du Ciel! What a tease, since I won’t be back soon enough to try them!

Neither of us tend to stay out very late so I buy some beers to have back at the hotel while we wind down and otherwise hang out. I picked up two different selections, a Maple Scotch Ale from Dieu du Ciel and a mixed pack (Cannon, Loch Ness and Titanic) of strong beers from Les Brasseurs RJ Inc, also from Montreal.

Cannon
This is a Dopplebock and true to the style it is a rich brown color, heavily malted, with a sweetness right in the center. At 7.6% ABV you could make a pretty good go of an evening with these!

Titanic
This was presented as a strong beer aged on the lees. It was lighter brown in color with a nose full of yeast, bananas, cloves and other spices. Margot said the aromas for too pungent and would turn some folks off. I’d bet she is right. The flavors were very well developed and rich from the sur lie aging. I definitely enjoyed this beer and will gladly drink the one bottle I brought home real soon!

Loch Ness
This was labeled as a Scotch Ale. It poured red/brown with yeasty aromas and some malt and spicy aromas. I did find some of the characteristic acidity and bit to the style, but not as much as I would have expected. This drank well, but didn’t really impress.

Dieu du Ciel Equinoxe de Printemps
(Maple Scotch Ale)

This was my favorite of the beers I tried back at the hotel. It poured hazy with a solid brown color. The head stuck around for a while and was off-white in color. The maple flavor was subtle and restrained and the beer finishes with a good deal of acidity. The hops leave a little bite in the finish. It reminded me of my own homemade maple brown ale where it was just ever so slightly sweet and a little earthy, but not far away from the beer of the same style without the maple.

Don De Dieu

The very last beer I tried while in the city was the Don De Dieu made by Unibroue in Chambly, Quebec. I purchased a bomber (22 oz) of it at a local 24 hr convenience store on my way back to the hotel from dinner with family and friends. It was billed as a strong bottle conditioned Belgian style pale ale. I’d suggest that was correct, although with a lot less of the spice and malt than I would have expected. I may have picked up a bad one or have been fatigued after the prior day’s events, I’m not sure! I enjoyed it, and I slept well after drinking it, but I am not sure it was 100% correct.

So as you can see we take this quest quite seriously. After trying 14 beers (13 of them new to us) from several new-to-us brewers, we have to once again say: “Quebecers Love Their Beer!” And we love them for it.

Cheers!

Jason

Local Sips – April 2nd, 2011

The Drinkery in Londonderry lined up another batch of great wines to share with shop patrons and fans this week. Dessert wines specifically.

We started off with the Chocorazzle Delight from Grape Time Winery. Grape Time is a local vint-on-premises operation that uses kit wine products for both customer orders and retails sales. We are pretty sure this wine was made from the same Chocolate Raspberry Port kit we made some at home with last year. It is a good wine, but not something would live up to the Port namesake. My favorite was the Red Decadence from Washington State. It is dry for a dessert wine, well balanced, and projects incredible chocolate aromas and flavors. The Sweet Sunset, from California, is actually too sweet but it did have a winning aroma.

The last selection was an ice cider from Vermont. We have had it many times and enjoy it every chance we get. It was a bit of an oddball in this lineup, but solid nonetheless. On our way out we picked up a mixed pack of beers to have with pizza from a local join that got best of accolades in the Hippo Press. Margot’s review of the pizza will posted on Sunday.

On Saturday I was flying solo, Margot was gone overnight with her sisters, so what did I do? Went to a brewpub! I have had multiple tell me that the Portsmouth Brewery was a must do for a beer lover.

One of the things I love about brewpubs is the sampler. Portsmouth does it right and offers a 10 beer (2 oz each) sampler of all the beers they have on tap at any time. This night they were pouring 6 of their own beers and 4 from Smuttynose, another Portsmouth based brewery. I can’t recall if I have ever had any of the beers from Smuttynose so I am pretty sure all 10 beer s were new to me. Here is the lineup I ended up taking down:

Portsmouth Dirty Blond Ale
Portsmouth Grand Cru
Smuttynose Star Island
Smuttynose Finsest Kind IPA
Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale
Portsmouth Imperial IPA
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
Portsmouth ESB
Portsmouth Weizen Bock
Portsmouth Black Cat Stout

I found there to be a definite distinction between the Portsmouth and Smuttynose beers. The Portsmouth beers tasted smaller batch and like each ounce had gotten just a little bit more love and attention. I like beer with lots of character and the Portsmouth beers put on the charm!

The two I enjoyed the most were the Imperial IPA and the Grand Cru. The Grand Cru is traditional Belgian ale with distinct aromas and a nice clean finish. The Imperial IPA was exactly the amped up hop monster I was hoping for. I actually snagged a pint of this to enjoy up next to chicken tenders with mustard ale sauce and pastrami sandwich & fries. The food was also fantastic and even though it was restaurant week and a Saturday night, I could imagine this place would be busy all the time.

I grabbed a couple of 22oz'ers from the retail shop on the way out. They will also fill half gallon growlers to go at the bar. Love it!

The next time you are in Portsmouth and have time for a beer make sure and stop by the Portsmouth Brewery.
Cheers!

Jason